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The Bell at the Crossroads · a Kairo game

A town built by the people you let in.

The Bell at the Crossroads at dusk: a small town of timber houses and a red torii gate at a crossroads, lamps lit along the paths, a river with two wooden bridges below it, dark pine forest all round. Free in your browser The Bell at the Crossroads Play The Bell at the Crossroads

What it is

A small town at a crossroads, and you are its mayor. Travellers come down the road and some ask to stay. You lay the ground — plots, paths, a lamp, a bridge — and decide who may settle. The ones you take in build their own premises, so the town is made by the people in it.

How you play

Someone waits at the crossroads with what they want on their card: near the crowd, away from the fire. Take them in or send them on. If they stay, choose their plot, then read in their neighbours what that did — every resident says in their own words how they find where they are. Plots are few and residents stay, so each yes is one fewer, and what you take in shapes who comes next. A few minutes at a time; the town keeps while you're away.

Will I like it?

If you like small decisions with consequences you can read, and a town that waits for you. If you want to build big and fast, this isn't it.

Players
One
Pace
A few minutes, whenever you like
Price
Free
Where
In your browser; a phone is the right size
Account
Needed, so the town is kept
Play The Bell at the Crossroads →

How a game goes

An arrival on a phone: a red umbrella spirit stands on the road with a card above them reading “Nobody thinks about an umbrella until it is raining and they are standing in it. I should be where they are standing”, and four wants beneath it — near crowd, near paper, away fire, near mender.
ArrivalThe Umbrella-Mender on the road, with what she wants above her head: near the crowd, near paper, away from fire.
Siting on a phone: the Umbrella-Mender's card lists what each want would get on the ford bank — no passing trade at the crossroads yet, no paper-maker yet — and beneath it a row of plots to choose from: Ford bank, Mill meadow, Road.
SitingWhere shall she go? Each plot on the rail says which of her wants it would answer — and, on the ford bank, what there is not yet.
A resident's card on a phone: the Umbrella-Mender on the ford bank, their sign turned below what they need, four wants with how far each is met, and under “where they are now” their own sentence with the verdict “badly sited — the Nopperabo Brewer is further off than that.”
NeighboursSettled, her card keeps score: the sign turned, one want met, one badly sited, and who is further off than she would like.
A finished town on a phone: houses with signs round a red torii gate, residents on the paths, a bridge over the river at the bottom, and the bar beneath reading “The road is quiet — 11 settled, 7 went on”.
The townThe road goes quiet once the plots are full: eleven settled, seven went on.

What changed

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